QUICK REVIEW - Rebuild of Evangelion 1.11 and 2.22

Now this isn't going to be anything like a normal review, it's just gonna be a couple of paragraphs on each movie maybe with a picture or two sprinkled in for a more visually appealing review :)

You are (not) Alone (2007)

Probably the most literal rebuild of the Rebuild's so far, Evangelion 1.11: You are not Alone is pretty much a shot for shot remake of episodes 1-8 of the 1995 anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Now, while some people may think this is a bit strange  that Evangelion would be getting a remake already but hey Hideaki Anno's an indecisive guy who just wants to screw with us fans because he enjoys seeing us suffer (he legitimately does). The story is exactly the same; Shinji Ikari and Rei Ayanami are two 14 year old children with more mental catastrophes than you can shake a stick at and they are tasked with piloting the synthetic humanoid lifeform known as "Evangelion", a mech that's designed to combat Angels, giant monsters who really want humanity dead after something 15 years ago called the Second Impact. Of course there's more to it than that but of the two movies I have seen upto this point, there's not a lot different about 1.11 and the original series' first 8 episodes. The animation quality far surpasses the original show however, and each scene is re-created faithfully to its original counterpart. The soundtrack is mainly the same but redone with higher quality instruments, but there are a few new tracks such as the FANTASTIC Angel of Doom. On it's own, You are (not) Alone is a great tribute to the original series and an entertaining as hell movie to watch.

You can (not) Advance (2009)

Now, onto the final movie that I have seen of the 3 currently available movies; Evangelion 2.22: You can (not) Advance. This movie is where the plot deviates from the original series is some places (such as Asuka being not only the pilot for Evangelion Unit-02, but also the test pilot for Unit-03, originally Toji's role in the original anime) but it still goes upto the point where Shinji fights the Angel that infiltrates NERV HQ (not the Final Angel) but after that things change in preparation for Evangelion 3.33: You can (not) Redo (which I am waiting for its dub before watching). The animation is still beautiful and the soundtrack still orgasmic, however the events portrayed in this movie are epic as fuck...so epic in fact that 2.22 is my favourite movie ever made - anime or otherwise.

REVIEW - Sakura Trick (2014)

So guys, I think I finally found it. Something that rivals Sword Art Online as the absolute worst anime I have ever seen (although it doesn't beat it, I'll get to that at the end). There's no point in even waning in this paragraph because I'm just putting it off aren't I?

Sakura Trick by Studio DEEN.

Now, the plot to Sakura Trick is kinda tricky (FUCK OFF THAT WASN'T A PUN) to discuss because of each episode being it's own self-contained plot or rather, each HALF of an episode being it's own self-contained plot. You see, this show doesn't follow the general construct of an anime story and rather follows the Cowboy Bebop approach and doubles that. Each episode has 2 (with one episode having 3) 12 minute segments with their own plot. Anyways, onto the actual plot description.

OH BOY.

So our main character Haruka is about to begin her first year in High School alongside her childhood friend Yuu. Now that's fine and dandy and all but here's the catch; they will be the final class to ever complete a full course at their school, as it's set to be demolished after they graduate. So after their opening ceremony, Haruka and Yuu get bored and go to empty classroom (because this is Japan - you're ALLOWED to do that apparently) and decide to do something that will "remember his place once it's gone". And so, like any normal Japanese schoolgirls, they kiss. Now I wouldn't mind this and in fact the best thing about this show is that it embraces lesbianisim, however, I think they embrace it a bit too much. See having a relationship with the same sex -fine. However, doing stupid shit like falling on her intentionally every two seconds to kiss her in every.damn.episode. kinda spoils the exclusivity of the relationship. I wouldn't have a problem with this but there are two lesbian couples in this show, and even a lesbian love triangle! Other than the lesbian-ness of it all, it's just mainly the characters fucking about and doing shit like Shopping for that one scarf Yuu wanted or Complaining about Haruka's bra size being a C when it's actually a D...I will say that some episodes are at best decent and watchable because of their moments but then other times it draaaaggggsssss about something I don't care about.

Now onto the characters of Sakura Trick and oh boy do I have some words to say about how forgettable and boring these cast members were. Out of the entire cast, my favourite person was Yuu's older sister, who I can't even remember the name of. Now this may have something to do with my liking of anime girls who're tall and have glasses (See; Makise Kurisu who doesn't always wear glasses but sometimes does). Nobody else in this cast stuck out to me apart from Haruka because her hair colour is one of the only ones that isn't a shade of either light blonde or ashburn brown. Seriously, they're that bad. In fact, I'd say that the cast as a whole rivals that of the cast of School Days and Sword Art Online as being one of the worst casts in an anime EVER.

Now personally while I think that pretty much everything else in this show is complete garbage, the show has one standout quality that is actually the best in it's class. The animation in Sakura Trick stands as some of the best animation I have seen in any show to date. Seriously, this shit looks gorgeous and I cannot find a single fault in how beautiful the backgrounds are, how well characters move or how detailed some scenes can be. It's actually perfect in this regard.

Wait...this show had a SOUNDTRACK?

Literally forgettable. Even Sword Art Online managed to get this one down to a T. Apart from the opening (The hilariously badly named Won*Chu Kiss Me) I couldn't remember one thing from this OST. Moving on.

Overall, this is a mess, an actual beautiful mess. Despite it having possibly the best animation in any ever, Sakura Trick stumbles at being an anime to show that it's okay for girls to like girls. Bad plot, forgettable cast, great animation and horrific sound, Sakura Trick is one of the worst anime I have ever seen and it's message is poorly delivered. Now if you'll excuse me I have a hole to hide in to prepare from the hate off of the Yuri fans.

Story: 3

Characters: 1

Animation: 10

Sound: 1

Personal Enjoyment: 2

FINAL SCORE FOR SAKURA TRICK: 3.4/10

REVIEW - Kill la Kill (2013)

You know, once in a while there comes along an anime that can totally surprise you, especially when people you know bash the show to bits (this happened with Neon Genesis Evangelion too). However, I do love surprises, especially when it comes to anime. Now, while I don't think today's anime is the best thing ever (or even the best anime of Last Year: Shingeki no Kyojin takes the top spot there for me), I do think that it's one of the more refreshing anime I have seen in recent times.

Studio Trigger's Kill la Kill

Kill la Kill takes place in a sort of advanced but still modern Japan mainly in a school known as Honnouji Academy. The story centers around Ryuko Matoi and her quest to find out the murderer of her father, with the only evidence of the crime being half of a giant scissor left inside her fathers body. With this in mind, Ryuko heads off to Honnouji Academy, and finds out that it's a totalitarian school that's basically run by the Student Council President, Satsuki Kiryuin. Satsuki runs the school out of fear with her super powered uniforms, the Goku Uniforms (not sure if Dragon Ball reference or not) which give the students super powers based on their star-ratings: The more stars, the more powerful the Goku Uniform. Ryuko challenges Satsuki to a fight, but loses and is severely under-powered to be able to take on Satsuki. She heads back to the destroyed home of her deceased father, and vows to take revenge on Satsuki. Then, out of nowhere, Ryuko falls underground and discovers a black sailor uniform which she dubs "Senketsu". With Senketsu draining Ryuko's blood, Ryuko swears to get to the bottom of her fathers murder and find the culprit once and for all, whether it be Satsuki or otherwise. What I like about this story compared to every other revenge story in anime is the unpredictability of the plot twists and how batshit insane it gets sometimes. It's a fresh take on the magical girl anime and while unlike Madoka Magika which deconstructed the genre, Kill la Kill embraces it's genre and takes it on a wild acid trip which completely entertains from beginning to end. 

The characters are some the strongest and weakest points of Kill la Kill. On one end of the scale we have pretty damn good characters like Ryuko Matoi and Satsuki Kiryuin and on the other end we have horrible characters such as Mako Mankanshouku and Harime Nui. I like Ryuko for her resolve and strength which reminds me a lot of Eren Jaeger from Shingeki no Kyojin. She's strong and has a sight on her goal which she never lets go of now matter how convoluted her view becomes sometimes, although she's not my favourite character, by far. That honour goes to Satsuki Kiryuin, the Student Council President in Honnouji Academy. Her strength, her ability, her form are flawless. If I was one of those weebs who claimed to have an anime waifu, it would probably be Satsuki (with Rin from Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne coming second). She is second to none, with interesting character development to back her up, a strong voice provided by the amazingly talented Ryouka Yuzuki and some of my favourite quotes from a recent anime. Like I said though, this cast is not all good. Mako can be plainly annoying at times with her stupid antics and her nonsense (although she was the source of one pretty damn good GIF) and Haime Nui just pissed me off every time she was on screen and she's one of my most hated female anime characters alongside Asuna Yuuki and Kotonoha from School Days.  

Animation-wise, Kill la Kill is sometimes REALLY good, but other times it's pretty bad. The action scenes are more often than not draw droppingly beautiful and gorgeously choreographed, but other times mainly during the slice of life stuff, the animation takes a turn for the worst in quality and it looks really unpleasing to the eye. Character designs look pretty good and unique (Mako is kind of generic though) and the frame rate is solid for the most part while taking a drop every once in a while.

The soundtrack to Kill la Kill was composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, who also composed the 2013 mega hit Shingeki no Kyojin, which has to be my favourite soundtrack to anything ever. While I don't think it's as memorable, Kill la Kill's OST is pretty damn good and it's two openings, Sirius and ambiguous are two of my favourite anime openings, although the two ending themes are so damn forgettable it hurts.

Overall, Kill la Kill is a fun ride with some bumps in it's proverbial road. While I don't think it's the 'savior of anime' or anything like that, I personally think it's worth watching. While some of the characters are truly horrible and the animation becomes sub-par sometimes, it's one of the better anime that were release last year.

Story: 10

Characters: 6.5

Animation: 7

Music: 8.5

Personal Enjoyment: 8

FINAL SCORE FOR KILL LA KILL: 8/10

REVIEW - Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)

(Note: I have seen the sequel movie, The End of Evangelion, however that movie will not affect the ratings of story, characters etc in this review. Also, I still have to watch the Rebuild movies, and I'll do that one day for sure.)

Nothing sparks controversy quite like anime. Whether it's because of the popularity of the show (Sword Art Online, Steins;Gate, Attack on Titan) or some themes/images/symbols contained in the show (Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne, Deadman Wonderland, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni+Umineko no Naku Koro ni) or some questionable design choices (Kill la Kill, Aku no Hana, Panty + Stocking, Elfen Lied) anime is one of the most controversial topics to discuss with anybody, but ladies and gentlemen, nothing comes as quite as controversial as today's anime, one often considered as a classic of the medium, and often considered a mess.

Studio GAINAX's Neon Genesis Evangelion

Evangelion takes place in the year 2015 A.D in a world almost completely destroyed by something called the Second Impact. 15 years prior to the events of the main plot, a meteor struck Earth and destroyed Antarctica, causing the Ice Caps to melt and flood half of the planet. Due to the violent nature of the weather at the time, Cities such as Tokyo were destroyed along with half of the human race. Fast forward to 2015 and we are introduced to Shinji Ikari, a young boy with a troubled past and some daddy issues which really need some sorting out. Shinji has been summoned by his father for the first time in three years to work at the organization his father commands known as NERV, a UN dummy corporations whose purpose isn't fully clear at the start of the plot. Suddenly out of nowhere, a giant Alien like being appear out of nowhere and starts destroying the city around Shinji, who luckily escapes with his NERV escort, Captain Misato Katsuragi. Misato brings Shinji to NERV headquarters where he is introduced to Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, a genius with computers and human engineering who is also in charge of mankind's ultimate weapon, which just so happens to be why Shinji was summoned by his father. The only thing that can destroy the alien creature, which is called an "Angel", is mankind's answer: The Evangelion Series - Giant Mech Robots capable of destroying the Angels once and for all. Against his will, Shinji is thrown into a battle he (or his comrades) doesn't fully understand, and the fate of Mankind lies in his - and the other Evangelion Pilots' - hands. While at the start, Evangelion does seem like a typical Mech anime with aliens destroying buildings and Robots fighting etc, but it is so much more than that. Evangelion is more about the characters trying to come to terms with themselves and the world around them rather than just 'Robot Smash Alien BOOM EXPLOSION'. It actually tries to be deep and symbolic, with a bunch of religious symbols and references thrown in. On the subject though, the ending has gotten a lot of hate because of it being too confusing for some people, which I can totally see, but here's how I see it: Hideaki Anno wanted every person to interpret the ending in their own way. Does Shinji accept himself? Does Gendo appreciate Shinji? This is ALL upto interpretation, which is why the ending of this series is still being discussed to this day, and that's the power this story has and that's why I love it so much.

The other big talking point when it comes to Neon Genesis Evangelion is the characters, specifically one Shinji Ikari, the lead protagonist. I'll talk more about him in a moment, however I want to briefly mention my personal favourite for a moment, Misato Katsuragi. Misato is the Director of Operations at NERV. What I love the most about Misato, in regard to at least the original series, is the fact that she's so good at showing her emotions. She's mostly a happy-go-lucky caretaker of both Shinji and Asuka Langley Soryuu for the majority of the series, but when shit hits the fan Misato often feels it the most. Whenever Shinji's in trouble, Misato does her best to save him, same with the other Eva pilots. She's a caring, loving character with a ice comedic side to balance out all the emotional baggage she has. However, the main talking point in regards to the characters in Evangelion comes in our main protagonist, Shinji. For many people, they see Shinji as nothing but a whiny bitch who always runs away from his problems because every situation he's in that ends badly, regardless of his input, is somehow all his fault, at least in his eyes. Personally, I do see the flaws in Shinji's character, and in fact the cast as a whole isn't really that great. Yeah, I like Misato, Shinji and Kensuke but minus those three the rest of the cast just don't really interest me that much. I Know I'll probably get a lot of hate for saying that (because EVERYBODY fucking loves Asuka) but that's my opinions. I like three characters and that's about it when it comes to the cast in this show.

Right, time to talk about another controversial aspect of this show: the animation. Studio GAINAX had a limited budget to produce this show on, and as such the animation isn't what I would call perfect but still very good, especially for something that's 19 years old. Backgrounds are nicely done, the animation is fluid for the most part (a feat for a hand-drawn anime) and the battle scenes between the Evangelions and the Angels are quite frankly brilliant to look at. In the final two episodes things start to go zany and the animation follows suit, so I guess the animation follows the mood of the show quite well when it needs to.

Soundtrack wise, Evangelion certainly surpasses Cowboy Bebop when it comes to 'favourite Anime OST from the 1990's'. From the immensely powerful battle themes and the liveliness of the track known only as 'Misato' to the catchy as hell and downright amazing opening, Zankouku na Tenshi no Teeze (A Cruel Angel's Thesis), Neon Genesis Evangelion has one of the best soundtracks to any anime ever made, and that's saying something.

Overall, I do think that at the very least, you should watch Neon Genesis Evangelion to see what the hype is surrounding this series. It's regarded as a classic anime and one of the greatest of all time because of how well it deconstructs the Mecha Genre and flips it on it's head. While I enjoy the story and soundtrack and the animation (somewhat), the weak cast bring this show down only slightly. I enjoyed Evangelion a lot but I can easily understand why some people (cough JAKE MOORE cough KIERAN JONES cough) don't.

Story: 10

Characters: 7.5

Animation: 9.5

Sound: 10

Personal Enjoyment: 10

FINAL SCORE FOR NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: 9.4/10

MANGA REVIEW - Aku no Hana (2009-2014)

NSFW Warning: There's a half nude girl and dude SOMEWHERE in this review...

So, this is going to be something new for me. I haven't done anything like this before, so it's going to be hard to rate what I read (although in this case it's not too hard as I know already what I think of this manga as a whole) because while I can rate Story, Characters, Art and Personal Enjoyment, there's no Audio with manga, so I guess rather than calculate on an average of 50 divided by 5, it'll be 40 divided by 4 (Yes, I use averages to calculate my scores :P ). Anyway enough dithering into technical stuff you probably don't care about time to get onto today's manga, and boy, what a manga to start off with. A dark, twisted and evil manga that definitely plays with your emotions. (for those of you who actually keep track of this blog, I reviewed the anime adaptation of this series about a month or two ago)

Aku no Hana by Shūzō Oshimi (2009-14. 57 Chapters, 11 Volumes)

Aku no Hana is the story of four High School students - Takao Kasuga, Sawa Nakamura and Saeki Nanako and Aya Tokiwa although specifically the manga centers on on Takao and his relationship with everybody as he comes of age through very....unique circumstances. The story does start off with a typical High School affair, Takao likes Saeki but never really has the courage to go up and say anything to her y'know the run of the mill stuff you see in Shoujo manga or anime (although the roles have been reversed....so maybe this is a weird Shonen Manga?). What truly kicks off the plot however lies in the titular Aku no Hana book (which is Charles Baudelaire's Les Flueres de mal) which Takao reveres like a prized idol. One day, he accidentally leaves the book in school after lessons end for the day. Naturally, he returns to the school to retrieve to book. He enters the classroom and just as he's about to leave, something falls behind him - A Gym Uniform. Who does the uniform belong to?

None other than Saeki Nanako herself.

Holding it as a trophy, Takao admires it for a moment before hearing a noise indicating that somebody was nearby. He - I guess in a state of confusion and panic - steals the uniform and brings it home with him. The next day, the teacher informs the class that Saeki's uniform has been stolen, which Takao did expect, however he did not expect someone to see him.

And the worst kind of person saw him - Sawa Nakamura.

The story starts then to unfold in ways people wouldn't normally expect from a Shonen manga. Takao has to agree a contract with Nakamura in order for her to keep her mouth shut. Takao must do whatever Nakamura wants, no matter how embarrassing or delirious it is. What comes in the 50 or so chapters that follow this event is just absolutely terrifying. Now, the anime was pretty dark when it came to its tone, but this manga takes it to a whole other level, thanks to the amazing second half of the series. The second half of Aku no Hana is all about exposing the evil within our hearts, showing that in our own ways, we're perverted or deviant from society. It also deals with healing wounds, grief and romance, very strange romance but brilliantly written romance at that. It's something not for the average Shonen manga reader - this is something for people with a sense of maturity. There's stuff like Rape, blackmailing and maiming amongst a fuck tonne of other things. This is something that only people who can truly pay attention to it and pick up on details can enjoy, but nonetheless....Aku no Hana's story is the best in literature that I've read because it deals with things most other people are too scared to touch, it has balls and it's not afraid to take chances, and I applaud it for that.

To talk about the characters in Aku no Hana again would be a bit repetitive, but the manga does have a far more expanded plot than the anime. So let's try to put it like this:

Takao Kasuga is the series lead protagonist. His point of view is the most important and is the one we view the story from, given the lack of a narrator (although he monologues to himself a lot). However, while he drives the plot forward, I wouldn't call him the most important person in the plot, since his motivations are driven by two others of the main four, and since I'm trying to keep this as relativity spoiler-free as possible, I won't talk about Aya Tokiwa since she's introduced in that brilliant second half. However, Takao isn't the most important since there's two people always pulling his strings; Saeki Nanako, his love interest and then there's the disturbing Sawa Nakamura. Sawa is just....wow. She makes a contract with Takao ordering him to do whatever she wants him to do, and Jesus, if there was a reason Aku no Hana is labelled as a horror it's because of the things Sawa makes Takao do. She is fucked up in the head (she's not afraid to admit this herself either) and all she wants to do is see how far she can push a human mind before they crack and become just like her.....and yet, Nakamura ends up being my favourite character in any Manga or Anime ever because of her mental disposition. She's desperately trying to escape reality using whatever means necessary, and because of her, my emotions have never been on such a rollercoaster as they were reading this manga. If I could take one character to the grave with me, it would easily be the deviant, pervert, fucked up and devious Sawa Nakamura because of how immensely pressurized she is throughout the whole series. Saeki meanwhile is Takao's love interest, so naturally Takao would do anything to please her and yet she, even ahead of Nakamura, has the most fucked up moment in the entire series.

The art and story were done by Shūzō Oshimi, and boy, this is some good looking manga. The characters aren't overly moe (which is fitting given the content of the manga) but rather somewhat realistic while maintaining the traditional anime art style. The backgrounds and areas look very well done for something drawn in black and white/grey, and expressions are realistically done (whilst sometimes over dramatic but these suit the situation).

I will just say it now. Perfect. 10/10. Must Read. Must Buy. A genius piece of fiction. A masterpiece. A modern classic. A look into the mind and a deconstruction of human sanity. Literature gold. Japan's finest moment. An amazing piece of fiction.

Simply put, Aku no Hana is the greatest thing I have ever read, seen or experienced. It is an emotional and psychological roller-coaster.

Story: 10

Characters: 10

Art: 10

Personal Enjoyment: If I could put more than 10 I would, but I can't. 10

FINAL SCORE FOR AKU NO HANA: 10/10

You're doing an injustice if you don't read this.

REVIEW - Elfen Lied (2004)

Every once in a while, I get told that anime is shit because it's 'far too kiddy' and that 'all cartoons are for pussies.' Well, Mr/Ms Ignorant I have something to say to you: next time you let me babysit your kids I'm going to be sure to put on something brutal. Something violent. Something scary. Something tragic. Something that is simply overly violent.

In other words, Studio ARMS Elfen Lied

Something that got me - at least at the start of the show - was how Elfen Lied didn't really have a sort of over-arching plot. The show starts off with a mysterious girl breaking out of a remote prison facility and brutally murdering everyone in her path. Ladies and gentlemen let me just halt the review for a second and say this; Elfen Lied's first five minutes contain some of the goriest scenes to ever be animated by anybody. I cannot stress this enough: If you are easily disgusted or scared by gore and/or nudity, please do NOT watch this anime. Elfen Lied is without a doubt the goriest anime I have ever seen. and considering the amount of gore in Umineko no Naku Koro ni that is an achievement. Anywho, the brutally murderous woman escapes and walks to a cliff. One of the men in the tower of the prison shoots her with a high velocity Sniper Rifle right in the head. Due to her mysterious powers it does not kill her but wounds her and she falls off of the cliff.

MEANWHILE, IN JAPAN (Where else...)

A woman arrives in a city after taking the train. After a while she meets up with her cousin, who is our main character (?), Kohta. Kohta and his cousin, Yuka, decide to head to beach to reminisce about their childhoods. When they arrive on the beach, they see a naked pink-haired girl standing there, looking confused. It just so happens that this is the same girl we saw escape the prison earlier. However, her bullet to the head seems to have changed her demeanour. She runs around for a bit and falls over, and wee see Kohta go over to see if she's alright, and a weird sight slightly shocks him. He sees two small horns sticking out of her head. The girl has apparently lost her memory, and can only mutter a single syllable/word: Nyu. With this information, Kohta aptly names the girl Nyu and brings her back to his new house, along with Yuka. The rest of the show is about is about the leaders of the prison trying to take our pink-haired 'heroine' back to the prison and also about Kohta re-discovering his past and just who 'Nyu' really is. The plot is slow to start but it picks up tremendously after the fourth episode once we start going into the back-story of some of Kohta and Nyu, and it's sometime that is a truly tragic yet visceral story and one of my favourites in anime.

The characters are this shows weakest point on the grounds that only two members of the cast get any sort of development, being Lucy (Nyu's real name) and Kohta. Since these two are the only two that get development, I'll be focusing on these two characters for today.

Kohta

I really didn't know what to think of Kohta when the show began. He kinda felt like a generic anime protagonist who slowly builds up a harem of sorts as the show goes on and that was making me worried. Luckily, while the harem did sort of come to fruition, it never really became anything romantic with maybe the exception of stuff near the end of the show with a certain character. He suffers from some sort of amnesia, not really knowing what happened in the past after his sister, Kanae, mysteriously died. As we find out later in flashbacks, Kohta was hospitalized due to the extremely violent ways in which his sister and father were murder before his eyes. While not my favourite main protagonist of any anime by a long shot (still prefer Battler Ushiromiya), he's a serviceable character and does his job pretty well.

Lucy (Nyu)

A tragedy. A real absolute tragedy in anime character form. Lucy's past is just plain sad. Being born a Diclonious (basically a human with a horn head and the ability to control vectors - Magical Arm things which can slice open anything within range), she was ridiculed right from the start of her life. Bullied throughout school with no friends, at the young age of 10, Lucy began to kill people just because she could. As she grows older, her violent tendencies begin to become more and more frequent. Lucy's character is by far the best in the show and one of the most brutally tragic in anime (not the same sort of tragic like Nagisa from Clannad or Yurippe from Angel Beats! but still sort of tragic...it's hard to explain).

The animation for Elfen Lied was done by a studio called Studio ARMS (not sure if I can make a good pun out of that given the subject matter). For an animation studio that I personally haven't really heard of, this is some pretty good stuff. Sure the 3D Animation for the vectors looks a bit weird but other than that the show is animated fine. Characters are designed faithfully to their manga counterparts and the backgrounds are done exceedingly well for something that was done in 2004. The action scenes all have a solid frame rate and the animation is extremely fluid. Not to mention, the opening animation is beautifully stylized after the artwork of famous Artist Gustav Klimt.

The soundtrack is again, terrific. From the serene, beautiful yet haunting opening Lilium to the feel-good rock of the ending theme, the soundtrack in Elfen Lied is pretty damn good. Sure, they use a tonne of different variations of the opening theme, so you could say it lacks track diversity, but at the same time they all fit so well to the depressing mood of Elfen Lied. It may not be a big soundtrack, but it works perfectly, which is fine for me.

Elfen Lied is one of the most notorious anime ever due to it's gore and controversial nudity, yet somehow they only enhance the show and add to the tragedy that is unfolding around us as we watch the world of the characters being torn apart bit-by-bit. While the lack of development for supporting characters (except maybe Kurama at a push) is a bit of a downer, everything else makes up for it. Elfen Lied is one of the best thriller anime ever made, and if you can stomach it, it could be one of the best you'll ever see. Period.

Story: 9

Characters: 7

Animation: 10

Sound: 10

Personal Enjoyment: 10

FINAL SCORE FOR ELFEN LIED: 9.2/10

REVIEW - Akira (1988)

I'm gonna be honest, Science-Fiction is not my favourite genre when it comes to movies. Sure, I like Star Wars, Cowboy Bebop, Steins;Gate and Back to the Future and I certainly plan on watching 2001: A Space Odyssey some time in the future, but I never really got into the genre that well. It's hard to explain why, but I just never really found an interest in spaceships or the future or a post-apocalyptic world. I dunno if it's because it was too 'grungy' or too hard to follow, I just never really found a reason to get into it and there was nothing that captivated me about the genre. However, as an Otaku it would be an injustice to me if I never at least watched the following sci-fi epic.

Akira, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo

One of the movies most iconic images, Kaneda braking on his custom built bike.

Akira literally begins as it sets to go on: with a bang. In the year 1987, in the midst of World War III (well that was a very pessimistic view back then, eh Mr. Otomo?) an explosion occurs in a top secret underground lab in Tokyo, Japan that levels the entire city. 30 years later, Neo-Tokyo is built up from it's ashes near Tokyo Bay. From the looks of things, Neo-Tokyo is a booming industrial city with an ambience of a society on the verge of collapse. We cut to a group of bikers, led by Shotaro Kaneda (played by Mitsuo Iwata/Johnny Yong Bosch) going around Neo-Tokyo kicking the shit out of other biker gangs and also causing havoc around the city. However, in a fight with their rival gang, The Clowns, one of Kaneda's friends, Tetsuo Shima (played by Nozumo Sasaki/Joshua Seth) crashes his bike into what looks like a small child, but there's something off about it. It has blue-green wrinkled skin and pure white flowing hair. Shocked from the crash, Tetsuo passes out and Kaneda and his group are placed under arrest due to martial law being in place. Tetsuo is taken in by the army and Kaneda and his gang are sent to a police station for questioning as to h=why they were out causing havoc on the streets. They manage to get out and Kaneda runs into Kei (also known as Kay in the English Version) whom he instantly has a crush on. Meanwhile, at the Army HQ, a Doctor by the name of Onishi (played by Mizuho Suzuki/Simon Prescott) is conducting experiments on Tetsuo to see if he can become a psychic weapon along the lines of the infamous Akira - the boy who lost control of his powers and single-handedly destroyed Tokyo in the blink of an eye. The rest of the movie falls down into two simple categories: a cat-an mouse game between the resistance that Kaneda joins (which Kei is a part of) and the army (who hold Tetsuo in custody, hence why Kaneda joined the resistance) and Tetsuo. The other plot arc in the movie follows the struggles of Tetsuo, and trying to utilize his new-found powers, not for the good of mankind but rather because he wants to prove Kaneda that he can indeed take care of himself. While the plot is somewhat cliché, it actually has some really good twists and turns and has a great narrative with an extremely powerful message which, while simple, is poignant in the way it is told and the way it comes across to the viewer. It's a balls to the walls sci-fi action flick with some heavy detail to help try and build a pseudo-realistic post-apocalyptic world.

Neo-Tokyo is a sad yet booming city.

Rather than dissecting the characters of Akira like I do in my normal anime reviews (i.e I talk about the main and my personal favourite), I'm just going to talk about the characters in general for the sake of nit spoiling too much of Akira. While you could say that Tetsuo could fall under the cliché of being the character that wants to prove to everybody that he's strong and reliable, I personally don't think that any of Akira's characters are cliché. Sure, they do some cliché things (like Kaneda falling in love with Kei at first sight) but their actual selves are not clichéd. They act pretty realistically to situations (as realistic as can be in a situation that happens in the world of Akira) and are somewhat down-to-earth. You actually end up cheering the good guys on in the end because of how badly they have it. Forced into school by the army, not allowed to bike in the night time, they're basically not allowed to have what they call 'fun' so they end up doing all the bad things that they do like hanging out at bars and wrecking cars and breaking the speed limits on their bikes. I mean the fact is that they are oppressed so much that you can't help but feel for them at times. The resistance is quite small but very clever in the way the go about operations thanks to some inside help, and when they're sneaking through the lab later in the movie the tension is just palpable and it just adds to the atmosphere of the scene so much. While definitely not without some problems, the cast of Akira is fun, diverse and tragic and is one of the better casts in an anime movie.

In regards to animation, Akira's animators were smart in the way they animated the movie using pre-scored dialogue. What this means is that the lines were recorded by the voice actors and the animators animated the characters mouths around the way the line was spoken by the voice actor. Akira was also a very influential piece of art at the time, paving the way for other anime of its art style such as Dragon Ball Z. The sets and backgrounds in the movie are all extremely detailed, and for something animated at the end of the 1980's, Akira looks absolutely beautiful. Characters move realistically and very fluidly and only do the impossible when they really need to. The hand-drawn animation is put to real good use here, and Akira and all of its 160,000 animated cells looks absolutely jaw-dropping. It is honestly the only real attempt at a proper realized futuristic Tokyo and it just looks stunning.

Soundtrack-wise, it's very heavy on the rock and typical sci-fi music, but it's got a kickass soundtrack. I think the only reason why I don't like it as much as most other anime soundtracks is that it's not as diverse as I'd like it to be. Sure that may have been the creators vision of what people in the late 2010's Tokyo do when he created the manga back in the late 70's/early 80's, but even so the soundtrack is great, just lacks some diversity. As regarding which dub you watch, any of the dubs are fine to be honest. I personally prefer the original 1988 Japanese Dubbing since it goes better with the mouth-animations, but that's just me. The 2001 Pioneer Dub is fantastic also and gets a thumbs up from me.

To quote a review on the 2006 DVD Version of Akira: "No Akira, No Matrix. Simple As." I think that reviewer hit it on the head perfectly. Akira is one of the most influential movies ever made, let alone Science-Fiction movies ever made. It, along with Trigun and Cowboy Bebop, helped make Japanese anime popular in the western world. It's stylized setting, down to earth cast and it's amazing animation helped pave the way for a new audience for anime, and I couldn't thank it enough for that. While it's not perfect, it's one of my all time favourite movies because of how well it gets its message across. 

Story: 9

Characters: 10

Animation: 10

Soundtrack: 8

Personal Enjoyment: 9

FINAL SCORE FOR AKIRA: 9.2/10